Race 1: Zonta strokes it home

In the first of two races, Zonta held off an attack from fellow front row starter Franck Montagny (Racing Engineering) and steadily pulled away thereafter to score his second win for his Gabord Competicion squad.

Montagny had his hands full of team-mate Justin Wilson in the opening laps, but soon pulled away and Wilson fell back into the clutches of Bas Leinders (KTR). Leinders shadowed him throughout the rest of the race, but the Belgian couldn't find a way past the reigning FIA Formula 3000 champion, so Wilson scored his first podium finish of 2002.

Angel Burgueno (Meycom) had run as high as fourth early on until a trip into the gravel trap at Turn 1 while under pressure from Leinders. He recovered to finish 14th.

Rafael Sarandeses (GD Racing) then lost a certain fifth place finish when he flew off the road at the Bugatti hairpin. He rejoined but headed straight for the pits, complaining that something had broken at the rear of the car. That promoted Polo Villaamil to the position of top Spaniard in fifth, with Felix Porteiro's Vergani Racing car completing the top six.

Ireland's Damien Faulkner was a casualty of a first lap melee which sent him pitwards. He rejoined a lap down, but his lap times would have been enough to merit a top six finish from ninth on the grid.

Race two, which includes the potential banana skin of a mandatory pit stop, starts at 14.15 local time (13.15 BST).


Ricardo Zonta, Gabord Competicion, 18 laps
Franck Montagny, Racing Engineering, +2.673s
Justin Wilson, Racing Engineering, +10.737s
Bas Leinders, KTR, +11.281s
Polo Villaamil, Adrian Campos Motorsport, +16.591s
Felix Porteiro, Vergani Racing, +27.912s